“Maintain your profit margins at 45% C/P Parts and 75% C/P Labor” says Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training Solutions.



Maintaining your profit margins is not always easy, and it’s not getting any easier! If you are struggling with profit margins, the first thing you must do is measure what you are getting.



The financial statement is the place to look. On your financial you will find month end data as well as year to date. What we want to take a look at it is the month end… Continue

Two friends are out hunting, and as they are walking along they come upon a huge h*** in the ground. As they approach it they are amazed by the size of it.



The first hunter says “Wow, that’s some h***; I can’t even see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is.” The second hunter says” I don’t know, let’s throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom.”

The first hunter looks around and spies an old automobile transmission lying in the grass. He tells the… Continue

I am constantly surprised at what people say when the answer they are seeking is the obvious one, it's simple and they don't accept it.

It's kinda like the Customer who is buying a car and you hit them right on the number on the first pencil... they look at you like you are screwing them! "It can't be this easy" they are thinking or "I'm paying too much."

In Fixed Operations it's the same. If a Customer needs a repair done and you go back to them with a repair that obviously…

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One of the most frustrating things that Service Advisors have to deal with is the unavailability of the Customer after they have left the Dealership.



In 100% of the cases there is a series of steps the Advisor can do during the writeup and repair process to increase the chances that they will be able to contact the Customer once the vehicle has been inspected or the repairs have been completed.



Step Number One.



Get a “Pre-Approval” amount. This is amazingly… Continue

In our world there is a constant search for “better.”



Better personnel, better systems, better procesess, better sales…you get the idea.



Is there “better” out there in Fixed Operations?



Sure. In recent years software and computers have made getting every conceivable report possible and as easy as a press of the button.



Software applications like ASR Capture from Reverse Risk is a prime example. Here is an application that does nearly everything that old… Continue

100% of doing exactly the same thing next year as what you did this year will yield you 100% of the same results.



100% of Personnel in your Dealership who do not receive any Training will perform exactly the same next year as they did this year.



100% of the Processes you used this year to get the results you now have will give you exactly 100% of the same results next year.



100% of the of the Profit you made this year comes from 100% of the Personnel you… Continue

Every week I am in a Dealer and have found certain things to be true for those that are successful and those that are not.



In Dealers that are successful, they make the hard decisions.



The gather information, investigate, counsel with whom they need to and decide. Once that decision is made, it is broadcast to everyone it needs to be and implemented immediately.



In Dealers that are struggling, this process is broken.



Most often, they make no… Continue

“What You Expect”



(This is a follow on blog post from a previous post titled “Crunching Your Service Numbers.”)



This is part of the daily “Must Do” list for every Service Manager. You cannot go through the day without checking progress. To do so would be a sure recipe for disaster. Just ask the Captain on any ship or the Pilot of any airplane. They will not start the engines without a plan much less leave the harbor or take off from the airport.



As a Service… Continue

Yesterday I had the privilege of addressing a room of Service Managers and Factory Personnel. And I have to believe that everyone in that room was there to find or gather some new information that would help them take action on something that might be causing them some problems at their Dealerships.



Why would you attend if you had no hope of getting something, right? I hope that everyone one of them got something that they can use right away at their Dealership this week, something…

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The number one area that your Customers would like you to improve in is… Communicating with your Customers.



Most of you reading this would say “We do communicate with our Customers all the time! We call them; we send them emails…why we even have a monthly newsletter that we send out. What more could they possibly want?”



Maybe…just maybe…they might want you to communicate with them the way they like to be communicated with…whaddya think?



Have you asked your Customers… Continue

It is not enough to measure.



That's right, I said it.



Measuring your numbers is a waste of time if you don't do anything with the numbers you measured. In order for the numbers to mean something, you must do something with them. It is not enough to just gather and store the information.



"You must measure what you need to manage".....and...."you must inspect and evaluate the efforts of your people daily" says Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training… Continue

Getting profitable. Wow. How cool would that be?



You come into the store the first day of the month, open the door to your office, turn on the lights, sit at your desk and open the drawer that you keep your last months financial statement in and read through it until you come to the page that has the final numbers....and you smile a little self satisfied smile....when you realize "we paid all of our bills before we even opened the door this morning."



Sounds like a science… Continue

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“Maintain your hours per C/P Repair Order (RO) at a minimum of 2.5” says Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training Solutions.

If you are currently at the national average of 1.5, then this might seem a bit of a stretch. It’s always a stretch when it’s as big as an elephant. And we know how to eat an elephant, right…..one bite at a time.

So, let’s break it down into bite sized pieces.

In the pursuit of HPRO the first thing we must have is well trained personnel. This means…

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“Maintain a 6 to 1 ratio of C/P RO count to total vehicle sales” says Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training Solutions.

That sounds simple enough. If you are currently selling 100 New and Used a month, then that pencils out to 600 Customer Pay Repair Orders per Month, not including Warranty and Internal. It’s the CP RO count we are after.

So, you just realized that your RO count is low, right? What are you going to do about it? If you are thinking that you need a big production…

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